Foreign

Ecuadorean Woman Found Alive in Coffin Dies Days Later

By Web News 1338

An Ecuadorean woman has died days after mourners at her funeral were shocked to find her alive in her coffin.

Bella Montoya, 76, was first declared dead by a doctor at a hospital in the city of Babahoyo last week.

But when mourners attending her wake heard her knocking on her coffin, she was immediately rushed back to the same hospital for treatment.

After seven days in intensive care, Ecuador’s health ministry confirmed she died on Friday from an ischemic stroke.

The ministry’s statement added that she had remained under “permanent surveillance” while at the hospital.

Speaking to a local newspaper, her son,Gilbert Barbera said, “This time my mother really did die. My life will not be the same.”

Following her death on 16 June, Ms Montoya was taken back to the same funeral home ahead of her burial at a public cemetery, local media is reporting.

Local media reported Ms Montaya had a condition called catalepsy – where a person experiences seizure, loss of consciousness, and the body becomes rigid.

A commission of experts has been assembled by the Ecuadorian health ministry to review her case.

Ms Montoya was placed in a coffin and taken to the funeral parlour in Babahoyo, south-west of capital Quito, after being declared dead on 9 June.

But after almost five hours inside, the woman gasped for air after her relatives opened the coffin to change her clothes for the funeral.

Minutes later, she was stretchered out by fire fighters and transferred back to the same hospital.

Bella Montoya is not the only person to “come alive” after being officially declared dead.

In February, an 82-year-old woman was found to be breathing while lying in a funeral home in New York State. She had been pronounced dead three hours earlier at a nursing home.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

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Human Angle

Mourners Stunned as ‘Dead’ Woman Comes Alive in Coffin

By Web News 982

Mourners at the wake of an elderly Ecuadorean woman were startled to discover she was still alive.

A hospital doctor in the city of Babahoyo declared Bella Montoya, 76, dead following a suspected stroke.

She was placed in a coffin and taken to a funeral parlour, where relatives held a vigil before her planned burial.

When, after almost five hours, they opened the coffin to change her clothes ahead of the funeral, the woman gasped for air.

“My mum started to move her left hand, to open her eyes, her mouth; she struggled to breathe,” her son Gilbert Balberán described the moment he realised his mother was still alive.

Video taken by one of the mourners shows her lying in an open casket struggling to breathe, while another complains that an ambulance they called has not yet arrived.

Minutes later, firefighters arrive and lift Bella Montoya from the coffin onto a stretcher and take her back to the same hospital where she had been declared dead.

Her son told Ecuadorean media that she was in intensive care, but was responsive.

“My mum is on oxygen, her heart is stable. The doctor pinched her hand and she reacted, they tell me that’s good because it means she is reacting little by little,” newspaper El Universo quoted him as saying.

Ecuador’s health ministry has set up a committee to investigate the incident.

Mr Balberán said he had taken his mother to hospital at about 09:00 “and at noon a doctor told me [she] died”.

He said he had even been issued with a death certificate, which stated that she had died of cardiopulmonary arrest after suffering a stroke.

Bella Montoya is not the only person to “come alive” after being officially declared dead.

In February, an 82-year-old woman was found to be breathing while lying in a funeral home in New York state. She had been pronounced dead three hours earlier at a nursing home.

BBC/Simeon Ugbodovon

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